Today's consumers enjoy the ability to access a tremendous amount of media content, such as music and videos, at any location or time of day, using a wide variety of media devices. With the availability of reliable high-speed Internet connectivity, and advances in digital rights management, users can stream media content, on demand, from peer devices or remote media servers.
A connected media environment allows users to select which of several media devices should be used to play a particular media content. For example, a user may wish to stream a selected song to a particular audio speaker, or stream a selected movie to a particular television. To provide an optimal user experience, such media devices must operate satisfactorily within the connected media environment. These are some examples of the types of environments in which embodiments of the invention can be used.